Andries Jonker surely didn’t anticipate that his first season as the club’s Academy Manager would end like this. Last Saturday a galling 5-1 defeat away to Fulham ensured that Arsenal U18s will end the campaign bottom of the third tier of the U18 Premier League, the lowest possible position in which they could finish.
That scoreline and the abject performance that accompanied it sparked a wide-ranging debate about the club’s academy and how Jonker has fared during his first year in the job. The results certainly haven’t been good- the U18s have lost frequently and the U21s, whilst faring slightly better, were unable to gain promotion back to the top tier at that level.
If you look a little deeper, however, there have been some genuine positives for the Academy to take this season. Hector Bellerin’s development into an important first-team player has been the obvious one, but, beyond that, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Stefan O’Connor have made their senior debuts, whilst Glen Kamara, Gedion Zelalem and Alex Iwobi all earned call-ups to the senior squad.
Iwobi is probably the academy player who has improved the most this season, with the youngster transforming himself from a promising but inconsistent winger into an adaptable striker who can still be used out wide if required.
Some of the club’s first-year scholars- the likes of Chris Willock, Kaylen Hinds, Stephy Mavididi and Tyrell Robinson especially- have fared well, indeed Willock has been one of the most impressive performers whilst representing England at the UEFA U17 European Championships which are currently taking place in Bulgaria.
The overall picture, then, doesn’t appear to be quite so bad for the academy, but it is arguable that most of those players would still have improved naturally regardless of whether Jonker was at the club or not.
We will, therefore, have to wait a little longer before we can fully assess the Dutchman’s impact on the academy and say whether he seems suited to the position. He has attempted to implement small changes throughout the course of the season, such as the introduction of a higher pressing game, whilst also placing an importance on defending as a unit.
Those alterations looked to be paying dividends earlier in the campaign, but haven’t been in evidence as much of late. Jonker still has some key decisions to make regarding the club’s academy, most pertinently concerning the coaching staff.
Steve Gatting and Carl Laraman have appeared unconvincing as U21 coaches during matches, but the academy players are often full of praise for the work that they do on the training ground. Frans De Kat, meanwhile, hasn’t given the best impression of himself during his first campaign with the U18s.
There may be some alterations with the coaching staff and there will inevitably be changes at playing level too. It is hoped that Jonker will oversee the signings of some top talent from abroad this summer, with some of the recent acquisitions from other clubs having been rather underwhelming.
With regards to the overall job that Jonker is doing, though, it is too early to cast judgement on him just yet.
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Jeorge Bird is the author of www.arsenalyouth.wordpress.com Follow him on Twitter @jeorgebird
Agree though I was excited when he arrived and haven’t seen much in the results to be happy about. If e don’t see good results next season it will be time for a rethink on Jonker.
Youngster teams are for developing, not winning. We should look for U18->U21->first team development rather than winning trophies at that stage – this is dutch approach AFAIK
If a 17 year old plays for the u21s can he then play for the u18s?
If he can then maybe we should do that a bit more for a season or two, rather than play a 16 y/o in his place (if you see what I mean). We really need to get the teams back into the top level competition for their age group, even if it causes a bit of ‘drag’ on a players career for 3 or 4 years. If they are good enough then the coaching staff should be able to see that in the youngster.
I think the questions asked should be the same of any sports organization that has not fared well: Is it the players? Is it the coaching / tactics? Is it the organizational setup? Typically, it is pointed at the players and their talent. If you go through a few rounds of players not achieving, then questions might be asked of the coaching and effective skill training? Then, finally, you might ask whether the players and coaches are not achieving due to the organization. My suspicion is that it is currently some of the player talent. We have some good young… Read more »
Agree totally. He also has to adapt the coaches to thinking the way he needs nevermind the players.
Thumbed down accidently… Forgive me
Hope jonker is not a plonker
Bleacher Report’esque title.
More the Mail. Flinging him in prison to prove himself.
I dont see why Jonker was hired to begin with. I remember Googling him back when we hired him and not really seeing much other than working under Van Gaal a couple of spells and managing Bayern Munich as interim manager for 5 games. How he qualified ahead of anyone else to lead our youth academy Im not to sure about. Also he and Louis Van Gaal are supposed to be good friends and very like minded people which to me tells me that Jonker and Wenger are probably on very different wave lenghts personality wise and could perhaps struggle… Read more »
what did u expect for an u18 manager? hiring a guardiola?
Ofcourse not, but you would expect when you replace a guy like Liam Brady with 20 years of experience in developing youth that the newcomer has some kind of expertise in the field of youth development. And according to Terry Burton, Wenger told him that he had nothing to do with hirinf Jonker, but that Gazidis did the intetviews for the job himself and made the decision on who to hire. But frankly what does Gazidis, a man who is a lawyer at heart and a business man know about what is needed to develop youth and running a succesfull… Read more »
You do make a fair point though.
Never knew Gazidis was the one who hired him. I wonder what was the basis for selecting Jonker, considering his lack of youth development? Makes it even more worrying considering he will be in charge of finding Arlene’s replacement.
We should just get DB10 to return and lead our academy. Club legend and surely knows the ways of development due to his Ajax experience.
God is capable to running the club top to bottom on his own, winning every trophy in the process and spending only £10mil in the process
I didn’t know you were best friends with Wenger?
You must be, to know his personality so well and to know who gets along with.
The truth is Arsenal just hasn’t focused on getting top-tier defensive talent into its youth teams.
Hayden aside, how good are our youth-team’s defenders and DMs? Would other teams want to poach them?
#jonkerout
lol’d
Jonker is the man. No worries about that
It all depends ok the philosophy of Danker. If he is trying to win every game (like all the other youth coaches) he is doing a shit job, but my hope is that he is challenging the younger players by having them play different positions and urges them to “dare to fail”. This will guarantee losses, but will have a tremendous impact on young players. This has proved to work (especially here in Sweden) and I really hope that Danker has this approach!
Bonkers Jonkers, only worried about the quality of the grass.
I kid, I kid, before you get the knives out.